Onto the final day of action then and the crews had 78 kilometres over four stages between them and the final time control. Jon and Shane would open the road just as they had throughout Saturday’s stages whilst rally leaders Seb and Vincent held a small lead over their teammates Oliver and Elliott coming into the final day.
The first stage then, SS15 Ingenio – Valsequillo 1 and Oliver set the pace from Seb and Elfyn. Only 1.3 seconds covered the three of them as they fought over the point for being fastest on Sunday. Further back there was a change in position between Thierry and Dani as the Belgian moved into seventh overall.
Onto SS16 Santa Lucía – Agüimes 1 and once again the young Swede was fastest from Elfyn whilst Seb was a second back with the third fastest time. The Frenchman saw his lead cut to just over two seconds. The fight was on for sure.
The penultimate stage then SS17 Ingenio – Valsequillo 2 and the three Toyota crews of Takamoto, Sami and Elfyn came through, each one going faster than the last. Then Oliver was making his way through the stage and got to just under 15 kilometres and lost control of the Yaris, colliding with a barrier and taking a wheel off the car. He and Elliott were out of the rally.
Onto the final stage then, SS18 Santa Lucía – Agüimes 2 and with Oliver out of the rally Seb just had to make it to the stage end to confirm his first win of the year. Meanwhile Elfyn set the fastest time taking the maximum points and was also fastest over the four stages making up the final day, therefore taking the Super Sunday points. Takamoto was second, Seb third whilst Sami and Thierry took the final point with the fifth fastest time.
Let’s take a look at the final finishing positions and hear from the drivers.
Rally Islas Canarias Final Classification
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Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Sébastien Ogier
“First of all, this has been a very enjoyable rally. The team has given us an amazing car to drive once again, and it was a lot of fun behind the wheel. It was really close all weekend with my team-mates and especially with Oliver, so I feel sorry for him and for Elliott because they were delivering another strong performance. On our side, we can be happy and proud about the job we’ve done this weekend and I’m happy to add a new rally to the palmarès. It’s been a fantastic performance by the team, so hats off once more to everybody for their efforts.”
Elfyn Evans
“It’s been a solid weekend for us with a pretty good final day and a good haul of points at the end of it. We made a bit of a slow start on Friday and that really put us too far back in the fight for the win, but things have worked out pretty well in the end. It was very close again today between us, Seb and Oliver. It was unfortunate what happened to Oliver, but congratulations to Seb, who has driven an exceptional weekend and deserves the win.”
Sami Pajari
“It’s always positive when you can finish on the podium, and especially to now have four in a row at this point in my career. This is really great for us. Still, this weekend I felt I had a bit more to give. There were some good stages and good sections, but also some other things which we need to work on and improve for the future. It’s nice to see we can take these podiums, but you always want more. But I’m happy with this result and another great performance from the whole team.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“This rally started with a very difficult Friday for me, but it got a lot better on Saturday and I was starting to feel much more comfortable with the car. I was still struggling a bit to get the best from the tyres, but today on the final day I tried to change my driving style a bit and it was working better, and we could take some good points. There’s still more to improve, but it’s going in the right direction at least and I have a good idea how to improve my driving for asphalt, which will be important with Rally Japan coming.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Adrien Fourmaux
“To be the highest-placed Hyundai and to put some points on the board is a positive; for sure this was not the weekend we were hoping for in terms of performance, but I am pleased with my approach to this rally. I could have started a little bit better on Friday morning but after that, it was very positive, especially against my team-mates. The next event should mean that we are more competitive, on gravel we are a lot more comfortable, so we will try our best in Portugal. I like the rally; I have always been competitive, and we go there with the motivation to get a good result.”
Rally Islas Canarias – Rally of Spain 2026, 23-26 April 2026
Photographer: Romain Thuillier
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Thierry Neuville
“It was a tough weekend, frustrating to see the times versus our main competitors who have been a lot quicker than us. We were struggling to find the speed, here and there we were close but sometimes we were really far away as we tried a lot of different setups. But at least in the Power Stage when we gave a bit more of a push, we were able to get one point.”
Dani Sordo
“The rally in general and being back in the Rally1 class on these stages was super nice. We struggled a bit with the car, and it was very difficult to fight the Toyotas. Between the three Hyundais, it was a nice fight but, in the end, we don’t want to just fight ourselves. We will have a good starting position in Portugal, so we hope to be competitive there and we will see what happens.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Josh McErlean
“It’s been a really positive weekend for us. We had a clean rally for once, which represents a big step up in performance compared to previous events. The team has done an excellent job, and I’m grateful for their patience and dedication in finding the improvements we needed. Battling throughout the stages has been enjoyable, and we’re looking forward to Portugal – a rally we really enjoy and where we hope to deliver a strong result.”
Jon Armstrong
“It’s been quite a tricky weekend. Coming here from Croatia, which was also quite tough and twisty, I thought it should be okay, but I probably underestimated the challenge of the rally in terms of all the consecutive corners – the tyre gets very hot and there’s not so much grip to the Tarmac. We just really struggled to be in a good rhythm and have good speed like we did in Croatia, which is frustrating. I made some mistakes trying to learn the tyre, because it’s a bit different from what we had in previous ERC seasons. I’m grateful to get to the finish and still learn as much as we can. We’ll try to pick ourselves back up for Portugal. We only got one Tarmac rally left this year and then a lot of gravel, so it’s important to learn how to progress on gravel. Josh and Martins will be quite fast there, so we have good teammates to benchmark ourselves off and learn where we should go with setup on the test.”
Romet Jürgenson
“It’s been a challenging weekend, and we recognize there are improvements needed across multiple areas. My driving technique on wide roads requires a very specific approach that I’m still refining, but I’m optimistic about our direction ahead. We’re now moving forward to Portugal where we’ll be competing on gravel – my preferred surface – and I’m confident this will bring better results.”
Summary
Well, what a rally. It had fast stages and technical stages. Seb and Vincent mastered them and took their first win of the year. The history books will show that they beat Elfyn and Scott, yet it was Oliver and Elliott who ran them closest before they had their incident on the penultimate stage.
Elfyn and Scott had moments of pace, which was great to see, and we know that they are quick on sealed surface rallies. They set the pace on the last day of the rally and took the maximum points for what is known as Super Sunday. This pace gave them back the championship lead.
Finally, Sami and Marko took their fourth podium of the season after the demise of Oliver and Elliott, but this was a well-deserved result as they’d outpaced Takamoto and Aaron through the weekend.
Next up sees the action move to the classic gravel stages of Portugal held from the seventh to tenth of May.
2026 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 5
| 1 | E. Evans | 101 |
| 2 | T. Katsuta | 99 |
| 3 | S. Pajari | 72 |
| 4 | O. Solberg | 68 |
| 5 | A. Foumaux | 59 |
| 6 | S. Ogier | 58 |
| 7 | T. Neuville | 35 |
| 8 | E. Lappi | 21 |
| 9 | Y. Rossel | 20 |
| 10 | L. Rossel | 18 |
2026 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 5
| 1 | Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team | 265 |
| 2 | Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team | 167 |
| 3 | Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team 2 | 75 |
| 4 | M-Sport Ford World Rally Team | 63 |
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